


To Fell With Metal

by AbsVoD7



Category: Underfell - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Human vs Mettaton, I'll stop over thinking this now, It came to me in a dream then became something else, Kid dies once fair warning, My First Fanfic, Pacifist Instance, This thing is still rather tame by comparison, Was bored
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-29
Packaged: 2018-08-11 16:56:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7900585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbsVoD7/pseuds/AbsVoD7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The human nears the end of their journey to find that Mettaton bars their path. Even though killing has been second nature to Mettaton for quite some time, the human believes there's still a chance to find another answer to their problems. Surely there's more to the robot than murder and television but to get to him the human must first get a better understanding of their self.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Fell With Metal

**Author's Note:**

> In short this work focuses around an instance in which a pacifist oriented kid comes face to face with the King's ambitious and eccentric robot executioner. This is as you know already my first work and I might work on posting similar works in the future.  
> I've modified this work to fit in with the rest of the story. It's officially the seventh part and I recommend you start by reading 'Too Warm of A Welcome' if you haven't.

     It was a daunting struggle to convince the monsters lurking about the CORE to peacefully end the fighting. However, as the human gazed upon what was hopefully the last door, determination rushed over them.

 _It’s almost over,_ the human thought, _the king’s castle can’t be too far now._ They then raised their sleeve to their forehead to wipe away the sweat of life threatening negotiations. Then again they did just endure the semi-volcanic climate appropriately named “Hot land.”

     The door retracted into the left side of the wall as the human took their next step. On the other side of it was pure darkness. As the human took three more steps the door slid shut behind them. At this point red lights had appeared on the ground of each side of them and continued to spawn ahead as if marking a path.

 _This is weird, surely they could've made automatic lights for the whole room,_ the human thought before proceeding more slowly than before. As eager as they were to reach the king’s castle the room brought on a strong sense of unease. Without warning the path finding lights disappeared and the silence was broken by an odd squeaking noise.

 _What is that?_ The human thought. _Could it be a mouse? No, can’t be._ As the sound started to get louder the human couldn’t help but feel like they’ve heard it before. Suddenly a spotlight had breached the darkness causing them to shield their eyes with one arm. Amidst the spotlight was a bizarre shaped silhouette. As the human’s sight began to readjust, their heart began to beat faster as fear swiftly conquered all other emotions.

     Mettaton was in the middle of the spotlight rolling back and forth on his wheel. His face was a large LED screen which only lit up squares in the color red or yellow, and it often depicted a red letter M. The large crack in his face was proof that many monsters weren’t happy to see him, and that he’s had to test his metal against them before. The mechanical monstrosity had four arms at his disposal. He was holding a mic in his top left hand while the top right was constantly sliding up and down the crack in his LED screen. The bottom set of arms hung lifelessly, springing into action only to assist Mettaton’s dialogue or wield his heart-stopping arsenal. The wheel was the culprit of the squeaky noise. It should’ve been easily recognizable, but it seems like such a small detail when you have to worry about magic tool chainsaws. Mettaton’s bottom right arm quickly shot up to point at the human causing them to flinch.

     “Hum-“, Mettaton paused. “I guess I don’t need to monitor your vitals to know that you’re not very comfortable at the moment.” His top right hand rested atop his head as the red on his face came together to make the shape of a heart. “Anyhow,” Mettaton said as he was done with his bonus antagonizing. “Human, we meet again. You’ve ventured a long way and somehow convinced a decent amount of monsters to not turn you inside out. That’s impressive work.” His bottom two arms started clapping for a moment before they went back to hanging. The spotlight began following him as he started to move around.

     “I’m pretty sure you’re aware of how much your soul means to the king,” Mettaton said while wheeling around the human now paralyzed with fear, “and you probably know already that you’re getting very close to meeting him. My question is do you think you can handle him,” Mettaton says as he stops wheeling to look the human in the face, “cause if you’ve done your homework you’d know that you’re not crossing that barrier without a monster’s soul. That means that you’ll have to get blood on your hands if you truly want to escape the underground. Not to mention the fact that we’re talking about King Asgore, whose vengeful desire has made him an exceptional killer,” he said wheeling even closer to them.

     “If you choose not to kill than you don’t escape the underground which means the mission was a failure. It’s not like you have a choice in the matter anyway. The chance that Asgore will just hug away years of grief and revenge is practically nonexistent. When Asgore gets your soul all of the underground will invade the surface and any human to cross his path will perish. Those who do live will more than likely be terrorized into living underground. Such a tale will fit into what humans call karmic justice,” Mettaton said while crossing his bottom two arms. “As interesting as it is to what if and if not, it’s time we got back to our regularly scheduled program. Besides it wouldn’t matter to talk about you and Asgore if I end up shredding you myself.”

     Mettaton began wheeling backwards with his bottom left arm waving goodbye as he prepared for the main event. “Lights, Camera, Destruction.” On command lights flooded the room revealing the ground to be a large arena design stage with an unnecessary amount of corners. Two metal bridges connected the floor to doors on opposite sides of the room. All that remained outside of the bridge and stage set up was a fall with no end in sight.

 _This is not looking good, maybe I can escape while he's preparing all of this,_ the human thought but the bridges retracted into their respective floors almost as soon as the lights were triggered. A copter like noise became faintly audible up above. Upon pinpointing the source of the noise the human was able to make out a smaller version of Mettaton with a heli-hat extension hovering just outside the stage with a camera pointed at them. Mettaton silently counted down from five with his bottom right hand before pointing to his heli-hat mini and saying-

     “Good evening infamous under-dwellers of the mountain. Today we welcome you to a very special episode of Attack of the Killer Robot where our guest star this time is, you guessed it, a human child,” Mettaton said while holding his hand out in the human’s direction. “As usual the first three lucky callers will be able to welcome our guest and share their thoughts with your favorite robo host to get the ball rolling,” he finished. He then redirected the audio output of his internal phone to the speaker on his body so that he and the human could listen in. “Welcome lucky caller number one, this is Mettaton tv and we’re glad you could join us this evening,” he greeted but a furious male sounding monster started to speak his mind on the other side of the line.

     “Is this a joke? That kid was supposed to die on sight. We could be exploring the surface but instead you’d rather play entertainer than get us out of the underground,” an upset female sounding monster then came onto the line right afterwards. “Idiot, how hard is it for you to understand that everyone’s tired of living here? Is this really what the King had us wait for? When are you all going to start taking us seriously?” Mettaton altered his LED squares to make a red letter X with his face before talking back.

     “Hold on now, only one person per call, and I am an entertainer if you haven’t noticed, next.” At the sound of a click the phone call ended and Mettaton slightly less audible than before says, “the nerve of these people.”

 _Wow, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. As many times an angry mob supposedly had his face on it, that kind of reaction should've been expected,_ the human thought. Upon recomposing himself Mettaton’s speaker makes two more clicks before he starts talking again. “Hello lucky caller number two,” before Mettaton can finish he gets interrupted by another male sounding monster that sounded just as angry, if not more angry, then the last one.

     “Man you’re really annoying, did you really have to broadcast on every channel? Try your best to kill yourself today so we can finally be done with your bulls-.” A loud yet low toned noise filled everyone’s ears as Mettaton censored the caller before saying.

     “Listen sir, this is a family show so please show respect to monsters that would like to enjoy the death of a human with their children, next.” A click is heard yet again followed by two more then Mettaton. “Lucky call-”, the human couldn’t tell if the caller was male or female but they were very quick to say, “sorry, wrong number,” before hanging up on Mettaton. “Seriously?” yelled our vexed robo host. “Anyhow, that concludes our opening segment. Hope you’re ready kid." Mettaton says as he refocused on the human.

     At the same time four more heli-hat minis had hovered in. One of them retrieved the mic from Mettaton while two others delivered magic tool chainsaws to the top set of arms. The last hovered above the middle of the stage holding a boom mic. Knowing that there was no escape, and that time was officially up, the human steeled their nerves and prepared themselves for the worst.

 _As much as I_ _don’t want to fight Mettaton, he's so far into his own world that it seems nigh impossible that I'll be able to reason with him,_  the human thought. Additionally, they were more than a little worried because, aside from the magic tool chainsaws, they knew almost nothing about him. Come to think of it the metta-minis weren’t here before either. Many traps had been used before involving bombs and even the CORE’s laser defense system but never had he revealed any of his abilities.

     "Draw," Mettaton said while opening a hatch on each of his sides. A bomb dropped into each of his bottom hands while the human flinched in surprise. He rolled the first one directly at them, but they quickly shook of their surprise in time to pull off a dive roll to the left. Luckily the blast radius happened to be pretty small; however Mettaton had lobbed the second bomb to catch them on the end of their roll. As quick as they were able to change their course, the bomb still caught their legs in the blast.

     "Ahh!," the human yelled as a sharp burst of pain caused them to topple over.  _No! I'm done for if he blew off... wait, they're still here,_  the human thought as they felt for their legs which were still attached for some reason. Mettaton shrugged as they gave him an angry look.

     “What? Confused? These are a special hunting tool of mine called Low Pressure Pyre Poppers. They’re meant to incapacitate because the explosion is of very low force and magnitude. However, they also contain a magic powder that agitates the nerves. That’s why your legs are stinging right now, right?” Mettaton explained before pointing one magic tool chainsaw at them. “As fun as blowing you up sounds, I doubt it will provide the necessary entertainment for my audience. There’s only one way this show will end," he finished.

     At the sound of a click the weapon was on, the primary conduction rod extended and a bright green light expanded from the large end of the handle until the plasma fields stopped its progress. The same light also filled in calculated wedges in the plasma fields to the point that it made up the teeth of the chainsaw as well. Mettaton slowly wheeled forward as the field generator began to rotate faster and faster. Meanwhile the human pushed themselves to stand up as the chainsaw settled into a low volume yet high toned whistle.

     “You’re a tough one, that’s good.” Mettaton said as he achieved striking distance. “Cause I would hate to have to go home early!” Mettaton said before swinging from the ground up in an attempt to remove the human’s right arm. They evaded the strike by sidestepping to the left, but at the same time Mettaton predicted their movement and jabbed them in the stomach with the second chainsaw. With another click the second chainsaw was on, as its primary conduction rod extended into the human’s stomach they were both pushed back and knocked down simultaneously.

 _Holy cow that was painful, I have to come up with a way to hold my own against him, but I just don't know how yet,_ the human thought while balled up on the ground and clutching their stomach. Upon looking up they saw Mettaton lift both stabilized chainsaws above his head. The human pushed on the ground with their right hand as hard as they could to assist their roll just enough to be out of the way of the double overhead slam.

     "This needs more struggling!" Mettaton said as the human fought to get back on their feet, but he was wheeling toward them slightly faster than before with both chainsaws crossed over to each side. They ducked as he quickly closed the distance with a cross slash but he followed up the attack by bringing the right chainsaw back in for a low sweep. "Show them that you were born to  be greater than us,"he said as they rolled backwards to escape.

 _Oh no,_ they thought as Mettaton equipped his bottom left hand with a Pyre Popper and tossed it just as they were coming to a stop. They then stood up and batted the Popper away with the back of their right hand. _I'm already having a hard enough time getting away as it is, I definitely don’t need any more of these,_ they thought to their self. While the first Popper’s sting was gradually weakening, the activation jab Mettaton had pulled did some good damage.

     “You refuse to justify the hate they have for you huh? I kind of feel bad for you, kid.” Mettaton said as he crossed the chainsaws behind his back. “You’re a nice kid, and there are probably a thousand more humans that deserve to be shredded right now. But we’ll never see them unless we start with you,” the entire LED on Mettaton’s face lit up red as he finished his sentence. The human tried to take a step back but staggered as he began to wheel toward them. As determined as they were Mettaton’s onslaught was tiring them out slowly but surely. “So what if a few of people have to die?" He said while dragging the chainsaws across the ground with his approach. "That’s show business baby!” he finished.

     Mettaton swiped up and over from the ground with his right then his left. The human dodged the first strike by leaning back and to the right but the second strike caught the side of their stomach as they tried to back-step out of his range. He then brought his left chainsaw, now on the right side, to head level and swung very hard in an attempt to behead them. They ducked under the attack while clutching their right side with their left hand. Mettaton then brought the right chainsaw in with a mid to low arc. The human, still clutching their side, got as low as possible and scurried beneath the saw to end up right behind him. Using his bottom set of arms, and the force from the last swing he just did, Mettaton rotated on his wheel so fast that he caught the human as they popped up behind him with the left chainsaw, which was already fully extended from his last beheading attempt. The human howled in pain as the weapon left a huge gash in their back.

     "Such a shame it is," Mettaton said as he slowly wheeled up to the human who had fell down to their knees while propping their self-up with their right hand. Metallic laughter filled the room as he monitored their fast beating heart. He then started to wheel around them while shrugging with his bottom set of arms and making a red question mark on his face.

     “What was at the top of the mountain for you kid? Was it peace? How about curiosity? Better yet adventure,” he said while rotating so he was face to face with them again. “For you to be alone up there, unaware of the world down below, and the helplessness of falling down unprepared.” Mettaton made all of his LED squares turn red again as he lifted one chainsaw up high. “My advice human, if you’re unlucky enough to get trapped in a mountain, consider yourself dead.”

     As the saw was about to descend the human could think of no answer to their situation. In a desperate attempt to buy even the smallest moment of time the human held their right hand up and said. “Wait a minute,” causing Mettaton to pause for a brief moment. “Well, well, well. Look who finally decided that Mettaton was cool enough to talk to,” he said as he placed his bottom hands on his nonexistent hips. “Wait? Why should I? I was all like hiya, and you were all oh no!” Mettaton said while doing strike exercises with his top set of arms followed by a panic motion with the bottom ones. “And then there was that spectacular little monologue of mine, pure genius if I do say so myself.” he then turned back to them before raising the chainsaw yet again. “Sorry my little guest star, but the show must go on!”

     The human’s eyes grew very wide as Mettaton brought the saw down and halted it extremely close to their face. “I’m just messing with you.” Mettaton said as he powered off both chainsaws. “We’re on commercial break right now,” he said while depicting a red pause icon on his face. As a pair of metta-minis retrieved the chainsaws from him the mini that had been holding the camera floated in and gave him a thumb’s up. Using his top left hand he responded with a thumb’s up of his own, while the top right went back to sliding up and down the crack in his LED. “One starfait please,” Mettaton said to what seemed like no one in particular. Meanwhile the human’s heart continued to beat very rapidly which Mettaton couldn't help but notice.

     “Wow, that thing is going to burst. You might want to fix that before we go back on, and add in some more dialogue as well cause the crowd would've loved that last bit and a mute actor is a niche favorite,” he said.

     “What are you?" The human looked at him and asked, "It’s hard to believe that you were programmed to have such an advanced personality. Alphys didn’t do all that herself did she?” The human inquired. Mettaton used his top left hand to wag his finger at the human and say, “I’m a star silly. Makeup!” Two heli-hat minis holding a mirror descended behind Mettaton while two more appeared on both sides of him as he looked at himself. The human raised an eyebrow in confusion as they all went their separate ways after doing absolutely nothing. Even weirder was that the human had noticed a switch on Mettaton’s back. _Could Mettaton have an off switch?_ The human thought to their self.

     Suddenly a heli-hat mini appeared next to Mettaton holding what looked like a fruit slushie of some kind. As Mettaton received it he and his mini looked at each other for a short moment. “This looks great, wish I could taste it. Wish we had a taste tester for human delicacies in general, but that was fun in any case,” Mettaton said while handing the slushie back to his mini after once again doing absolutely nothing.

     "What's the point of- Idea!" Mettaton shouted while depicting a yellow light bulb on his face. He then pointed at the human while looking at his mini that then floated over to them while holding out the slushie. “Go on kid. It’s not going to kill you. We’re saving that for the camera.” Mettaton said as the mini hovered even closer.

     The human closed their eyes while controlling the pace of their breathing. “All of this has rather ridiculous you know,” they said to him.

     “True, but you have to go out of the norm to make excitement, right?” Mettaton responded. The human then took the slushie from the mini that then quickly got out of sight.

     “You seriously have no problem toying with my life, or any life for that matter?” The human continued.

     “Nope, before you started talking to people the underground was devoid of ideas like comfort and compromise for a long time. You might want to finish that because we’ll be on again real soon,” he said.

     “I’ve officially hit rock bottom, and I’m not saying that because I fell down a mountain,” the human finished. Mettaton responded with a metallic and diabolical laugh.

     "I'd welcome you if you sold your soul, but Asgore would have a lot to say about that," he joked. The human had their eyes closed as they downed the starfait. Its taste was pleasant; while it did have the flavor of a fruit blend some parts of it were still unidentifiable. Suddenly the human was thinking clearly, and in their mind they felt fine. Too fine come to think of it. The human lifted their shirt slightly to analyze the wound on the right side of their stomach. To their surprise there was no visible damage to their flesh even though the blood assured it did happen.

     “Amazing, you just can’t beat good monster food," Mettaton said as he witnessed the healing. "Get in position everyone!” He continued causing a bunch of metta-minis to scatter. Two of the minis re-equipped Mettaton with his magic tool chainsaws and took the starfait glass before leaving. Mettaton powered both chainsaws on and lifted one up high before silently counting down from five with his bottom right again. Upon pointing at the camera holding mini again Mettaton says, “consider yourself dead,” before bringing the chainsaw down once more.

     The human rolled to evade the saw before crawling backwards. Mettaton responded by arming his bottom right with a Pyre Popper and tossing it at them. They unintentionally caught the Pyre Popper and reflexively tossed it up high into the air where it exploded. Upon bringing their gaze down from the sky, Mettaton had already closed the distance between them. He then seized their legs in each of his bottom hands before they could try to escape.

     "It's not over," the human said as he raised both saws high and brought them down together. They responded by sitting up and catching Mettaton’s top arms. "This was a bad idea," the human said as they felt immense strain weighing heavily on each arm.

     “I'll say, you didn’t really think you'd overpower my hydraulics, did you?” Mettaton said as he slowly brought the whistling chainsaws ever closer to slicing off both of their arms. They then pushed outward with all the strength they could muster, causing the chainsaws to hit the ground on both sides of them. They then proceeded to twist out of Mettaton’s grasp, before using both legs to push him away.

     As Mettaton was rolling backward he pushed his bottom hands into the ground behind him to slow his momentum until he had regained control. The human managed to get back on their feet, although they were breathing heavier and sweating harder now. “How can you do this?” The human asked. Mettaton began to roll back and forth on his wheel as he readied his answer.

     “Easy, a magic tool chainsaw runs on a crystal rather than an engine, making it weigh a lot less than your traditional meat shredder. But I doubt that was the answer you were looking for. I’ve got a better one for you,” He said as he began wheeling toward them again. “I run on metal, magic, and entertainment, and right now everyone is interested in lucky human soul number seven,” he finished.

     “There’s no need for it to stay like this down here. Especially since it hasn’t been like this all the time. If monsters were able to agree on having Asgore rule as king then surely they all loved him at some point,” the human said while wiping the blood off their hand with their right sleeve.

     Mettaton put his bottom hands on his nonexistent hips again as he stopped wheeling and said, “love huh? Such an idea might’ve existed before. However, the young prince’s death left everyone feeling pretty sad. If my studies have taught me anything it’s that sadness breeds anger,” Mettaton shrugged with his bottom set of arms before continuing. “They tried to take his life before if you didn’t know. Of course they didn’t expect the man that sought peace would make a murder film out of them. The scene ruined the garden he and his family had cherished, which would’ve never happened had he still been the man we all knew. Love may have been why they put him up there, but he’s still there to this day because of fear,” he finished.

     Mettaton leaned forward while crawling rapidly with his bottom arms causing him to wheel faster than he’s ever been. As he closed in with both chainsaws outstretched the human could see no clear way to back out of it, so instead they started running at him. As he brought both chainsaws in to try and take their head again. The human slid to the right of him while leaning back as far as they could manage. As the chainsaws barely glided over their face the world became silent for a moment, except for the whistle of the chainsaw and the fierce beating of their heart. As the human made it past him safely Mettaton used his bottom hands again to come to a stop and turn around.

 _That was way too close,_ the human thought to their self. As they rolled over and pushed their self-up off the ground, Mettaton was wheeling back toward them very slowly this time. “Look, maybe if-“, Mettaton held out his bottom right hand as he interrupted the human.

     “Stop, please. Talking won’t solve our problems anymore. Thinking you can help us just makes you the biggest joke in the underground.” Mettaton swiped downward with his right. The human dodged to their right to avoid the attack. He saw this coming however; as a result the human was met with a blow to the stomach from Mettaton’s bottom left fist. He kept talking as the blow brought the human to their knees once more.

     “You’re quite the optimistic little guest star. When I first heard of you trying to be peaceful with monsters I said that is a dream, kid needs to wake up.” He then threw a punch with his bottom right which the human blocked with their left arm. They then placed their right hand on the arm because Mettaton’s punch still dealt a bit of damage.

     "You had to have dreamed of doing something else at some point, right?" The human asked while Mettaton depicted a red X on his face again.

     “My dream is to entertain,” he continued. “But for some weird reason my audience only consists of bloodied hands and sour faces. Not going to lie to you kid, I’m pretty jealous that you’re making friends while I try to light up a colorless kingdom.” he said while placing his nonexistent chin in his bottom left hand. “Maybe killing you will make me feel better. Humans tend to do things like that when they’re jealous, right?” He finished.

     The human placed their right hand on his body and pushed hard. Mettaton sighed as he stopped himself from rolling by using his hands as brakes again. “I can do this all day, but I suspect you have a limit.” Having made enough room by pushing Mettaton, the human struggled onto two feet yet again.

 _He's right; this battle is definitely taking a lot out of me. I’ve got to turn the tables on him, but how?_ They thought, but suddenly they had an idea. While Mettaton started to monologue about the pointlessness of the human’s struggle they did nothing but stare over his shoulder.

     "What are you staring at? You’re supposed to be looking at me,” he said while crossing his bottom arms yet again.

     “Alphys! What are you doing here?” said the human. At this point Mettaton depicted a red exclamation point on his LED.

     “Alphys! How?” Mettaton depicted a red X on his LED as he turned around and said, “Get off of my stage you miniscule dinosaur!” To his surprise there were no lab coat wearing dinosaurs present. The human took off running toward Mettaton who was now depicting a question mark on his LED.

 _I’ve got to do something now or never. If I could push him off that would be the end of it. I’m still in a lot of pain however,_  the human thought but they noticed the switch from before on Mettaton’s back as they were approaching. _Really hoping this is an off switch, because I don’t know if I have the strength to get him off the stage,_  they continued to think while picking up the pace even more as they were sure Mettaton wasn't going to stay turned around for long. However they had moved too fast and lost their balance causing them to fall.

     "Weird, I don't remember her working on any cloaking devices," Mettaton said with his back still turned. The human happened to fall on Mettaton in a way that they ended up hitting the switch while pushing him at the same time. Mettaton’s face depicted an exclamation mark as he was suddenly rolling forward. He wanted to try and stop himself with his hands but his motor functions were deactivated for five seconds. As he went over the edge he accidentally rewired the audio from his info feeders to the internal speaker, so the monsters around Snowdin Town, MTT Resort, and any other place that Mettaton had “bugged” because he was paranoid, could all be heard on tv letting out a huge cheer as he fell into the abyss.

     The human looked up from the ground and let out sigh as they were sure they were alone on stage. _That’s that I guess. Not the way I was hoping it would end but nonetheless I’m almost done down here. I feel a little bad. I wasn’t trying to kill him, and even though he technically wasn’t a living thing, Mettaton was definitely more than a machine,_ they thought to their self. The human tried to get up but the pain was convincing them not to. _I’m definitely not going to miss any of this. Maybe I could sleep here for a while. No, the ground’s pretty uncomfortable, but there'll be time for rest once I get back to the surface,_ they continued to think.

     Upon forcing their self-up on two legs again, the human raised their sleeve to their forehead to wipe away the sweat of a life threatening performance and looked at the exit door. Suddenly a faint booming sound became audible from below. _What was that?_ They thought while looking around but couldn't find anything. The silence was then replaced by what sounded like an exhaust jet. _No, no, it can’t be!_

     The human looked towards the edge of the stage as the sound was getting closer and closer. Without a doubt, Mettaton was slowly emerging from the abyss with all of his LED squares rapidly glowing red and yellow. As suspected, he was making his return using a rocket jet that had replaced the wheel. As he landed the sound of groans could be heard from the monsters on the other end of his info feeders.

     “That was a good ploy human," he said while cutting off the link of his info feeders to the speaker. "Looks like you didn’t expect me to come with boosters,” he said while clapping his bottom two hands twice signaling a pair of metta-minis to his side. The human raised an eyebrow as the minis held a screen over him.

     “You really threw me off guard when you flipped the switch”, he said. “I didn’t expect you to push me at the same time, which was pure genius. Was that luck by any chance, or did you find my mobility manual at some point? No, if you did find my manual you would’ve known about the boosters,” as Mettaton talked, a fog began to emerge from behind the screen which was cue for the metta-minis to leave.

     "What's going on here?" The human said as a bizarre shadow appeared amidst the fog, but it wasn’t the same one that they were familiar with.

     “More importantly, if you flipped my switch then that means you’re ready for the unveiling of a secret project of mine. I was having a hard time deciding whether or not I was going to use this in our fight. Thanks for helping me make the decision, so as a reward I’ll make your last living moments-“; the shadow held out its palm and dispersed the fog with a fan effect revealing the new form of Mettaton. “-absolutely traumatizing!” He finished.

     The new Mettaton took on a humanoid form. He still had four arms and the left side of his face had an eye directly below another eye. It looked like hair was covering the rights side of his face. His legs were, well, Mettaton looked rather feminine for some reason though everyone was pretty sure that he identified himself as a guy, and the fact that his feet were built in the shape of high heels didn't help. Just above his waist was Mettaton’s core, which was in the shape of a heart that had a crack in it. He was sliding his bottom right index finger up and down the crack in his core, but this is the first time he’s shown off his new body so he must’ve done that on purpose.

     “Do you like it?” Mettaton asked with his top set of arms going ta-dahh and his bottom left hand resting on his finally existent hips. The human’s only response was to take a step back out of both horror and confusion which made him laugh. “You don’t look happy to see me, I bet you thought you were on your way out of here. You do realize that the bridges are still gone right?” He said as the bottom eye scanned around while the top one was trained on the human. “I have control over this room’s mechanics. I could’ve trapped you here until you were dead, but it turns out watching humans starve to death isn't nearly as entertaining as it sounds,” he continued.

 _Flak, he's right again,_ they thought.  _I couldn’t have escaped if the bridges never came back. There might’ve been a chance that they would return if Mettaton had actually been gone right? Would I have been in a lose-lose situation?_ The human’s heart beat began to pick up the pace as their thoughts rattled them.

     “Anyhow, back to me. This is the form that I’m going to take when the underground encroaches upon the surface. I can’t wait to see how they look when I arrive and tell them that Mettaton Ex has made his premiere. I’ll give them the most captivating performance ever; afterwards they’ll be met with Asgore and the shadow of death but more importantly the name Mettaton will be fresh in their minds as they pass over,” Mettaton snapped his fingers and all sorts of mechanical whirs and industrial noises could be heard going on within the stage. Two metta-minis floated in with each holding a magic tool chainsaw. Mettaton held out his hands and the chainsaws levitated from the minis to him.

     “Just like how I’ve revealed there being more to me, our stage is setting up to show off some secrets as well,” he said while powering on both chainsaws. The human looked down to see all the tiles rapidly glowing red and yellow before looking back up to see Mettaton clapping with his bottom arms. “I should’ve done this earlier; this is going to be a way better finale," he then closed his eyes and brought his bottom left hand slightly over his mouth while giggling. The moment the tiles stopped glowing he opened his eyes again and said, “show time,” before bursting into a sprint at the human.

     They weren't sure how Mettaton was going to attack in his new form so they took a deep breath and readied their self for whatever. Mettaton struck high with his left, but the human dodged the attack by ducking. However, the attack was followed up by a sweep kick which knocked them off balance. He then attempted to split them at the waist while they were on the ground but they managed to roll in the nick of time to get away with only a rip in their shirt. Mettaton rushed the human again as they were standing up by throwing consecutive punches and saw swipes. The human used their open palms to catch and redirect a few of the jabs while doing the proper sidesteps necessary to avoid getting cleaved, but this was burning them out more than ever.

     “You can’t play defensive forever,” Mettaton said as he did a crossover slash followed by a two handed grapple attempt. The human avoided both threats by ducking beneath the saws and jumping backwards as Mettaton tried to seize them. “Don’t tell me you still can’t bring yourself to hurt anyone. Was accidentally pushing me off the most fight I was going to get out of you?” The human was still taking several steps back as Mettaton continued to impose. Suddenly the tile directly behind them opened and closed very quickly, while bringing a Pyre Popper onto the stage. As the human stepped back onto the tile, the Popper exploded rendering their left leg barely usable. Mettaton laughed at them as they fell to one knee.

     After crouching and placing his bottom hands on the ground, Mettaton performed a powerful jump that instantly put him right in front of the human. They fell over to their backside as Mettaton had hit the stage. He tried grabbing them but with the use of their good leg they fought to kick away the arms. Afterwards ?ettaton had struck with his left and then two more times with his right. The human rolled slightly to their right to evade the first strike, followed by rolling continuously to the left to avoid the next couple of strikes. The human was now crawling to try to get distance between them and Mettaton who was slowly walking toward them while saying, “you can’t carry on like this.” Suddenly the tile that the human just crawled over began to glow yellow as it separated itself from the stage and kept rising. As the tile quickly reached a dangerous height, the human looked down to see Mettaton giving them two thumbs up. “Looks like someone found a boost tile,” Mettaton said as he motioned a large group of metta-minis onto the stage. “Let’s give them a hand shall we,” he continued.

     "I didn't think that this could get any worse," the human said as another boost tile became active a little ways off. At the same time the minis flew up and locked their arms together as to make a path from the first boost tile to the next. Meanwhile Mettaton picked up a second pair of magic tool chainsaws delivered by two more minis.

     “Welcome to a new segment of ours called Death by Juggle, where we combine an old form of human entertainment with a common physical exercise for younger humans. The human looked at all the minis to see that their set up didn't look all that different from a set of monkey bars. _Does he really expect to chase me across the bars while juggling chainsaws?_ They thought. “Come on guest star, let’s get started.” The human looked at Mettaton and said, “Absolutely not.”

     Mettaton who now had four stabilized chainsaws crossed over his back responded by saying, “so you don’t want to join in on the games, huh. That’s fine, so are you ready to die because I can spin you off of that platform if you want.” Suddenly the platform on the other side of the minis began to spin rapidly just to prove that Mettaton was not bluffing. “It’s your call, you can stay and die, or you can try, fail, then die, or you can get across and I’ll reward you with more time, which does nothing since you aren't willing to kill me. So come on, we all know that I’d never betray a good performance,” he finished.

     The human thought to their self before looking at the minis and taking a deep breath. _It doesn’t look like I have any other choices. He has a point, in the case that he’s not lying what would I do with the extra time?_ As they latched on to the arms of the first set of minis the platform quickly descended while Mettaton counted down from five before starting up his juggling act while slowly walking forward. _I guess it was rather fortunate that this gimmick doesn't have me using the leg he had just messed over,_  the human thought but they weren't about to let their guard down yet. Suddenly the minis began floating towards the saws while having each pair at the end take the place of the pair at the front making it harder for the human to keep ahead of Mettaton than it should've been. _Really,_ the human thought, _I knew there was a catch. Oh well, I should still have this nonetheless._ Mettaton was looking up at the human as they were traversing his circus act. “You’re doing pretty well; you must have been top of your squadron at whatever they call human training institutes,” he said. _Where is he getting all of this from?_ The human thought as they continued to swing. _Doesn’t matter, just a little more and I’ll reach the other boost tile._

     As the human was five swings away from safety, the boost tile quickly descended and the minis stopped their flying treadmill routine. _Why am I not surprised,_  they thought as they hung there. “Hey guest star,” Mettaton said from below. The human looked down to see that Mettaton was actually in front of them now. “You didn’t think this segment would be that short did you?” He said as he started juggling again. At the same time the minis restarted the flying treadmill routine in the opposite direction. The human grabbed the set of arms behind them with their right then their left, effectively turning around so they could swing away as the minis tried to feed them to Mettaton yet again. Without warning the minis had upped the speed on their flying treadmill so the human had to swing even faster to avoid being shredded. As they managed to still keep good pace ahead of the saws things got even crazier as Mettaton acknowledged them from below. “Good job,” Mettaton said as he continued to juggle. “You’re halfway done.”

     Suddenly every other pair of minis would leave causing the human to have to make bigger swings if they didn't want to fall behind. They were putting in their best effort now, but being up there for so long was really wearing them out. After hanging in there for a little longer the minis had stopped their flying treadmill again. The human was sweating now and their arms felt like melting. Suddenly clapping could be heard coming from below. The human looked down to see that it was coming from Mettaton. Another pair of metta-minis took the two extra chainsaws from him. Afterwards he then used one of his free arms to point behind the human. Upon turning around the human was able to see a boost tile active on the other side of the minis. Mettaton wasn't juggling this time and the minis weren’t doing the flying treadmill either. However, every other pair of minis had flown off again meaning that the human had to get a little air time between swings to reach the next set of arms.

 _Just a little longer,_ the human thought while swinging their good leg forward and back to try to gain momentum. Upon feeling that they were ready they had released the first pair of arms while stretching out their left in an attempt to reach the next set. Upon succeeding, they then brought their body across with just their left while stretching out their right to reach the next pair of minis. They were successful again but as they tried to repeat the maneuver their right hand had slipped causing them to undershoot the next swing. The human had caught the next set with their left hand; however they didn't have enough momentum to pull off another swing nor a good enough hold to keep their self-up there. As a result their left hand quickly slipped off as well causing them to fall to their death.

     "No!" The human screamed on their way down. Things went silent as their fall had come to a stop, but upon opening their eyes they saw Mettaton who had caught them on the way down in his bottom two arms. “So close kid.” Mettaton said as the human tried to escape his clutches. “They’re you have it everyone. This concludes our special episode of Attack of the Killer Robot and also marks the beginning of the liberation of the underground. So as promised, one human soul coming right up!” Upon finishing his sentence Mettaton proceeded to lop off both of the human’s arms before dropping them on the ground. Afterwards he had slit the human’s throat so that the screams became silent as they started to choke on the blood. Mettaton started to laugh as he then impaled both sides of the human’s stomach with each chainsaw. “You put on a pretty good performance. I kind of wish it wasn’t over. But I’ve got a lot more shredding to do and I really don’t feel like getting scrapped so this is farewell human.” Mettaton then dragged both of the saws up and over tearing apart both lungs and the heart simultaneously. As the human’s life began to fade Mettaton’s laughter could still be heard up to the point that all went silent.

     Amidst pure darkness there was neither form nor understanding. Nothing could be perceived in this state of isolation, yet somehow a tiny light was making itself known amongst the darkness. Then, somehow, sound was piercing the veil of silence and words were being made clear. “It’s not a pretty sight is it? Well, there’s no arguing there. But I want you to stay determined, because it’s not going to be like this forever.” Suddenly the human opened their eyes and sat up really quickly while at the same time shouting, “What is that?” Upon looking around the human realized that there was only darkness and that even the ground itself was invisible. Upon looking to the right, two words had formed in white letters. The left one saying continue and the right one reset.

     “Oh no, I’m back in hollow world again aren’t I.” The human held their self as the memories of murder by Mettaton were still fresh and devastating. _Why couldn’t this all have ended the first time? Why do I have to keep going through this?_ The human bore an upset look while bringing about muted tears. There was more than enough pain and death looking for them underground, but staying trapped in the maddening void wasn’t appealing either. However, the memories of all the times they had died on their journey were making it hard to want to leave. _I don’t want to give up, but I don’t know how I’m going to get past him._ Amidst their moping the human looked back on several moments in their journey to try to put their self at ease. Suddenly they felt like they were actually there as if the hollow world was directly connected to their thoughts.

     The human looked around to see the set up of the guest room they had while at Toriel’s place. Upon looking to the right they were able to recognize a conversation that they were having with Flowey after they had died for the first time. “You were able to do it, weren’t you?” He said with a sad look on his face. _I didn’t fully understand what he was getting at back then._ “I used to be able to pull it off, but things had changed ever since you got here. Look, she had set me ablaze multiple times before and even though death among other things become undone when you do it, that doesn’t mean that there’s no psychological strain.” _He was looking at me with utmost seriousness at the time, and I wasn't doing a good job at keeping up._ “Even if it does help you get out of here, can you really just go back to doing whatever on the surface as if none of this ever happened? Could you truly ignore everything you’ve seen and all that’s happened to you? If you did make it, would you still be the same?” The human dispersed the memory as the conversation was weighing heavily on their heart, again. _Flowey, now that I think about it, if he dies will that be it for him? Would I have to reset everything to try and save him?_ They thought.

     Suddenly another memory came into play. This one was of the human, Flowey, Papyrus, and Sans all enjoying dinner together. “You’re quite the idealist if you think you can avoid fighting in the underground human.” Papyrus said while winding his fork into a mound of spaghetti. As Sans had downed another bite he had asked the human. “Hasn’t anyone told you that you’re going to get yourself killed around here?” Flowey and the human looked at each other for a quick moment. “Surely we don’t have to fight forever, right? Wouldn’t it be easier to call a truce?” _I wasn’t aware how bad things were underground but I meant everything I said._ “Absolute foolishness, eat your spaghetti human, you don’t have the time to chase impossible dreams,” Papyrus said while just about finishing off his bowl. The human responded by saying, “It’s not impossible, in fact it already happened. Who’s to say it can’t go back? Why is it such a big deal that I’m down here anyway?” The human asked while Sans was handing an empty bowl over to his brother. Papyrus pointed at the human who was now scraping what was left of their bowl into Flowey’s mouth.

     “Plenty of reasons, seven human magicians had harnessed soul power to trap us down here. Thus a power equivalent to seven human souls will be required to destroy the barrier. If someone had a monster’s soul and a human’s soul they could just walk through the thing but only monsters as old as the king himself have a soul that will last outside of the body. That’s why everyone has their eye on you.” As Papyrus took his and Sans’s bowl to the kitchen the human said “thanks for the food, it’s pretty good.” He responded by saying “of course it’s good. I am a master chef after all.” Then, slightly less audible than before, he said “thanks.” The memory was then dispersed. _Asgore is the only one anyone can think of that has a soul that will last outside of his body. None of the other monsters can have their soul leave without it being destroyed. However, any monster that was to get my soul could go wherever they wanted_.

     Suddenly the next memory to appear was one of Flowey and the human hanging out with Undyne. The human was sitting in the chair right across from her. Her spear was still stuck in the table from when she had the outburst. She was sitting back in the chair with her arms crossed and one leg crossed over the other on the table. Flowey was on the ground now because the shoe was going to slide and topple over if the human had put it on the broken table. “Asgore could walk out of here anytime. He has six human souls already, but he doesn’t want to. He wants to crush humanity with the full power of the underground. Your soul is all he needs to accomplish this.” Undyne said while pulling the spear out of her table and startling the human at the same time. “What’s with that look?” she said as she staked the spear in the ground to her left. “Anyways, I don’t know how but I believe that Asgore has been able to use soul power before the first human had even fell down here. Stories are that this is a gift that only a select few monsters can be born with. I’d hazard a guess that that’s why his soul can exist outside of his body.”

     Undyne ran her fingers through her long red hair. “Aside from having physical capabilities, a monster needs to understand the connection with their soul to defend themselves. For example if you tried to fight me than it probably wouldn’t do anything because you’re rather weak if not harmless. But in the case that I wasn’t looking to fight you and you had attacked then I would end up suffering more damage than I should have. Safety is one of many reasons why monsters have steeled hearts. There’s still a limit to how well we can protect ourselves because we react to an enemy’s soul as well. With that being said even someone as fierce as I could fall at the hands of a true murderer.” The human looked down pretty sad about the mood of the conversation. They had then asked Undyne, “Is Asgore a true murderer?” Undyne responded by saying. “Nah, believe it or not Asgore still has a conscience, but I don’t think there’s a chance that you’ll find it.”

     The human went back to drinking their tea. “Thanks for having us over Undyne.” The human said. Undyne was now brandishing a large smile. “Hey kid.” Undyne said. The human looked at her amidst their cup of tea. “You know I want a rematch right?” The human spewed forth a good amount of tea while falling back in their chair, in which Undyne only saw fit to start laughing. The memory was then dispersed. _If everyone is so sure that I’m doomed to fail then maybe I should just stay in hollow world. That way I can have a nice and quiet void to shout at and vivid memories to keep me company whenever I miss my friends. What am I thinking! I can’t stay here, this place is horrible. But this is the only alternative to not dying anymore._

     Unintentionally, the human had brought forth another memory. This was a more recent one that showed the human and Flowey trying to get the assistance of Dr. Alphys. “The flower is not lying; your soul power will increase as you raise your level of violence.” She had said while looking through various notes. “The more you distance yourself the easier it will be to hurt others. Therefore your soul power will be more devastating since it’s a way to bring your intentions into reality.” The human then told her, “I don’t see myself doing something like that,” in which Alphys had responded by saying “I know, because I’ve been watching you.” The human had let out a sigh before saying “Look, just get him to the other side of the CORE please. Everything else that happens I’ll find a way to handle myself, but I can’t put his life in danger for the sake of my own.”

     Alphys looked at Flowey then back at the human. “You should, it’s been like that down here for a long time, and I’m sure he knows it. Nonetheless I’ll carry out this simple task for you.” The human was filled with relief upon hearing Alphys say that. “Thank you very much.” Alphys shook her head as the human showed appreciation. “Thank me not; I’m just doing a favor for Undyne, under any other circumstance you would’ve been attacked by Endogeny. You should probably go try to get yourself killed now.” Flowey had gave a nod of approval to the human before saying, “Don’t worry about them Alphys, they’ll find a way.” The memory was then dispersed. That’s right; _Flowey expects to see me on the other side of the CORE. I can’t just let down my best friend. The human stood up and looked at the space where the two words were floating. All of them had helped me, even though it probably wasn’t easy for them to do. It’s definitely going to be risky but I think I might have a plan to stop him now._

     The human pointed at the word that said continue causing the white letters to mash together until they became a blob that stretched itself out until it was in the shape of a door. Upon opening the door the human was sucked into more darkness. All five of the human senses were rendered useless here. The human just continued to wait patiently in the dark. Then a sound became barely audible in the distance, but it seemed to be getting louder and louder. When the sound was apparent enough to be identified, the human had realized that it was a heartbeat. Suddenly the human had opened their eyes and saw that they were right outside of the door that led to their fight with Mettaton. The human looked into the dark room and had no fear, but only determination.

     The human proceeded with majority of the events from the previous instance still fresh in their minds. “Come on out Mettaton, I know you’re here.” They said as they heard the sound of Mettaton’s squeaky wheel. The spotlight from before turned on and Mettaton had emerged from the darkness before rolling back and forth on his wheel. “It looks like someone is eager to get on with the show,” he said before letting loose one of his metallic laughs. Mettaton proceeded to belittle the human’s idea of making peace with Asgore. As he asked the human if they thought they could handle the king they had responded by saying “I’ll never know until I try, I don’t suppose you would just let me head to the castle, would you?” Mettaton wagged his bottom left index finger at the human while saying “No can do kid. We all have jobs to do and roles to play.” At the same time two metta-minis were delivering magic tool chainsaws while the camera mini was setting up in his usual spot.

     The human waited patiently as Mettaton proceeded to answer unhappy callers. The whole time they thought to their self. _There are definitely some unknowns that could prove fatal. But if everything works out I should be able to reason with him. He cherishes performing above all else so I might have to go along with the act to get through to him._ The human had snapped back to reality the moment Mettaton had said, “Hope you’re ready, kid.” At that point they readied themselves for the attack. _Alright, I can mess with the Popper and fake the jab for the sake of keeping the performance lively, but I can do without the cuts._

     As the first Pyre Popper had caught the human’s legs, they sat up and looked at him angrily triggering the same explanation from last time. The human than followed the same sequence up to the activation jab. They tightened their abdominal to reduce the pain of the initial hit while holding their arms over their stomach. They then held on to the rod with their arms as it extended so it didn’t dig too deep into them. Overall the pain was a fourth of what it was originally. After getting away from his double overhead slam the human looked at Mettaton to see that his LED was lit up so that his face was depicting a smile. _That might not be good, I’m pretty sure that he knows that this is an act. Then again maybe he prefers it that way,_ the human thought.

     Majority of his following onslaughts and monologues went as expected. Upon getting to where he had landed the first two cuts. The human had evaded differently as to escape the cut that would’ve caught their stomach with only a tear in their shirt. However, Mettaton had rotated on his wheel so fast that the human still took a cut to the back even though they had been preparing for it. _Am I just not fast enough?_ The human thought as they propped their self on one arm like last time. _At least it’s not as deep a cut as last time. It should make the rest of his performance go as expected too._ As Mettaton went about asking the human what was at the top of the mountain for them, they put on a smirk as he finally got around to saying, “Consider yourself dead.” As Mettaton raised the chainsaw the human took a deep breath as he stopped it right in front of their face.

     “You’re quite the entertainer human. That was a commendable show you had put on,” he said while powering off the chainsaws. The human proceeded to talk about his complexity so that the events of this instance don’t become something unfamiliar. Everything was going according to plan from the part where commercial break was over to the point that the human successfully tricked Mettaton. As Mettaton Ex reemerged from the fog in all of his glory, the human calmed their mind and steeled their nerves before whispering to their self; “It’s either do or die again.”

     Mettaton Ex’s onslaught was the same as before so the human was able to keep up while hardly receiving injury. To their surprise a Pyre Popper was hiding under a tile closer to them than last time. The human managed to stop their self in time as to avoid stepping on the tile but Mettaton had quickly closed in and tried to split them at the waist. They escaped by ducking and rolling beneath the saw but as they tried to stand up they were being elevated in the air. _He’s definitely in full control,_ the human thought as Mettaton congratulated them for “finding” a boost tile.

     The human didn’t resist going along with Mettaton’s game this time since they knew there was nothing that could be done. Upon completing the first two phases the human looked down to see him smiling in a way that seemed more normal than bloodthirsty. On the third phase the human had lost their grip and fell, at this point Mettaton tossed the chainsaws in his bottom two hands aside before running and sliding on his knees to catch the human. Upon being seized by Mettaton they looked up to see that for a brief moment he appeared to have something weighing on his mind. As Mettaton snapped out of it and began his closing statement the human thought to their self once more. _Hopefully I’ve gotten to him. But I’ll have no control from here on out. Still, there’s nothing better to do but try._

     “There you have it everyone. This concludes our very special epis- huh? What are you doing kid?” Mettaton looked down at the human who had interrupted him by placing their hand on his chest. Suddenly a yellow light erupted from the human’s hand causing Mettaton to drop them. As they rolled away Mettaton proceeded to do a system check. Structural integrity: Unphased. Magic Reactor Stability: Minor fluctuations. Side effects: Spontaneous loss of motor functions. Damage report: Non lethal status. After assessing the situation Mettaton gave the human a bad look while crossing his bottom two arms, however the bottom left one randomly dropped as Mettaton started talking. “What was the point of that? Nothing would’ve made this show more spectacular than a battle with a wielder of soul power. When you started channeling that energy I was hyped, but to only be met with these harmless little soul darts is pretty disappointing,” he said.

     The human got back on two feet before taking a deep breath. As they started to talk, Mettaton went from being angry to slightly surprised. “You think it’s foolish that I don’t want violence to be the answer to everything. I bet you wanted the satisfaction of pushing me to a breaking point, so that the only way out would be fight or flight. But I’ve come too far to stop now.” As the human continued to speak Mettaton lost control of his right leg. “You definitely possess the soul of a monster. Which was lucky for me because there would’ve been no hope had you had been immune to soul power. Which ties into my second point. You’re probably aware already that monsters are known to react to the soul of their enemies.” Upon regaining control of his leg Mettaton responds by saying, “Obviously, so what are you getting at?” The human continued by saying, “Soul power is manifestation of one’s intent so it’s no surprise that my ability was harmless. However, my soul power was able to affect you even though you’ve proven that you have no problem fighting with me, which is an unusual case. After putting all of these little details together it became clear to me,” they continued.

     The human looked at their palm and a yellow light condensed itself into the shape of a soul in their hand. “You’re obsessed with entertaining and will keep the show going even if you have to kill while doing it because you’re loyal to Asgore and the underground. It should have been obvious that there would only be one reason that your actions as well as your ideas all relate to activities and stories from the surface. The fact that you would hold an act above all else in the underground’s grim story. Tell the truth Mettaton, you don’t desire the death of humans at all do you?” They inquired.

     Mettaton let out a sigh as they took a break in their theorizing. “You’re good but that’s not much of a secret kid. I could’ve told anyone that. But this place isn’t much for talking and the quickest way to wind up dead is for the king to consider you useless,” he said while testing out his motor functions again, and after a bit everything seemed to have stabilized. “I enjoy a lot of things about humanity, but that’s not going to stop me from shredding them if it keeps me out of the scrap heap. Even Alphys knew she’d have to abandon her goal of studying among human researchers if the liberation of the underground was going to come to pass. Choice is the difference kid, a human displeased by death will kill if it means not losing something, and I will draw your blood even if you are human if it’s our only way of breaking out of this prison,” he finished.

     The human replied by saying, “For Asgore to have his way would mean that a lot more people who don’t even deserve it will die off of a grudge harbored from another time, how does that seem right to you?” Mettaton responded by saying, “Don’t talk to me like that, you already know what’s required to escape, so which one are you trying to choose, peace or freedom? First of all, the problems won’t end with the death of Asgore because the kingdom will become even more chaotic and I’ll be sent to shred them down until another ruler is elected. Not only that, you’d have to do something about the human souls which means their chance of freedom will be dashed again less you risk leaving the door open for another monster bent on vengeance. Second of all if the king does go back to his old self then you’ll still be stuck here and the residents will get so riled up that they’ll try to kill both of you, and he’s not going to want to fight back either so we both know how that scenario will play out,” He finished.

     “Is that it then? Are you just going to accept Asgore’s decisions and follow his plan even though it means doing a lot of things you don’t want to? Is it all going to be worth it in the end?" They asked. In response to the question Mettaton had pointed his finger at the human before saying, “You’re not really going to tell me that humans don’t have to perform tasks that require them to battle their own ideals are you? Mettaton followed up the question with one of his metallic laughs. “Look at you, talking with me about my trials and my future as if we’re about to become best friends or something. We can’t continue like this,” Mettaton then held his hands out and the magic tool chainsaws levitated to his hands once more. He then pointed both chainsaws at the human while his left hand went back to his hip and his right index finger back on his core. “I refuse to have this show end in anyway less than legendary. I’ll admit that you’ve grown on me but that doesn’t change the fact that talking about all these issues is futile. Soul power is tied to intentions right, so do what your words cannot human.”

     The human lowered their head as Mettaton had asked them if they accept his challenge. _Failure,_ they thought to their self. _Surely he knows this isn’t how they should do things. Why would he just accept the boundaries imposed on him, on all the monsters for that matter? Why can’t he believe that there’s another way. Is this dream of his worth all that he’s been sacrificing? I’ve already done this much,_ the human thought as they looked at their palm. _If the words won’t reach then I guess I have no choice._ The human balled up their right hand into a fist before telling Mettaton, “I accept your challenge.” Upon hearing this Mettaton smiled before saying, “Glad you're on board, kid. Besides, having the will to surpass the fiercest adversaries is one of my favorite things about humans.”

     Upon finishing his sentence Mettaton sprinted toward them. They responded by holding out their right palm and shooting three soul darts. Mettaton had sliced through the darts with two motions of his left then right saw. Upon reaching the human he readied both saws on his left side before attempting to slice their chest and stomach open at the same time. The human brought their hand to the middle of their chest and erected a barrier in front of them. The barrier held for four seconds before Mettaton had broke through it, but a shock-wave was unleashed with the barrier’s destruction that pushed the two far away from each other. Mettaton then threw a saw low before jumping high into the air.

     As the saw got close to removing both of the human’s legs, they jumped forward as high as they could to get over it. They noticed in the air that Mettaton was holding out his hand out in their direction. A look of confusion dawned their face up to the point that they heard a whistling sound behind them. Driven by instinct they ducked just in time to avoid getting decapitated as the energy saw levitated from the ground to Mettaton’s hand. They knew that Mettaton was set up to come down with the saw immediately before they’d even get the chance to turn around. So instead they quickly turned their ducking motion into a roll allowing them to get just behind Mettaton’s slam.

     As they tried breaking out of the roll into a sprint Mettaton turned around and went for their back with the other saw. The human turned around and fell backward causing a narrow escape of the slash. On their way down they had fired a soul dart at Mettaton’s core which he had blocked by bringing one saw in front of his lower torso. Mettaton then brought the other saw around and tried splitting the human down the middle. They escaped with a roll to their right in which Mettaton had responded by propping both saws backward while charging them with excess magic. As they were standing up he advanced with a scissor slice. The human sidestepped to the right but their left side got caught by Mettaton’s left saw. They then rushed forward but not fast enough to stop the right saw from gliding across their back. Mettaton was surprised to see the human take the pain head on, but it wasn’t a bad move seeing that the follow up blade waves were rendered useless.

     The human tackled Mettaton and proceeded to launch and even denser soul dart into the core while they were on top of him. Mettaton was planning to bring the saws in on the human but was foiled as the shot to the core caused temporary loss of control in the top arms. Mettaton then grabbed them with his bottom right hand and threw them up and over. The human let out a groan of pain as they hit the ground back first. As they managed to get back to their feet they focused hard on the condensed soul energy in their hand and placed their palm on their chest. Suddenly the cuts on the human’s left and back sides had vanished, but they now felt slightly more tired for having done it.

     Mettaton started to move toward them again with the chainsaws in the bottom set of hands this time. The human raised their hand out and Mettaton had looked down to see that he was standing in what looked like a puddle of soul power. “Interesting,” he said as he started to walk forward but go nowhere. Suddenly his walk became a jog, and not too long after that the jog turned into a sprint, afterwards the sprint became something unnatural. The human was trying so hard to keep him at bay but the more Mettaton seemed to resist the more pain they started to feel inside their arm. Just as they were about to reach the breaking point Mettaton had lost control of his legs causing him to drop the saws as well as stumble and slide forward on his face as the human had stopped the puddle. _Gosh this is tough, he'll easily outlast me at this rate, but I'm doing the best I can,_ they thought.

     “Self sustain, temporary disarmament, and various non weaponized types of physical projection. Dangerous? No. Nuisance? Definitely,” Mettaton said as he pushed himself off the ground. As he reached for the human with his bottom left hand they had made another barrier that sent him flying back. His top set of arms became active again as he was flying, so he held both arms out and jammed the saws into the stage after they had levitated to his hands. “I hope you have something special in store for me because there’s no way you can protect yourself if this is the extent of your soul power.” he said while reassuring that he had control of the arms again. “I’m going to be upset if you expect me to believe that this is you truly accepting my challenge. Maybe this will convince you that I’m no longer pulling any punches,” Mettaton snapped his fingers and two metta-minis hovered in carrying a bizarre looking gun.

     “Let me introduce you to my latest invention in the massachrome weapons series, the magic tool flame rifle. Mettaton’s new toy looked just as advanced as the CORE itself. The barrel was rather long and had an unusual piece connected at the tip while the side of it had a more recognizable bolt action piece that tied into a slider with three notches. Mettaton turned the rifle on and aimed it at the human. They held their hand out and made a wall which Mettaton proceeded to laugh at as he grabbed the bolt and pushed the slider up to the third notch. Suddenly the attachment at the tip of the gun begun to contract at one end until the exit was extremely tiny. Then as he pulled the trigger a red beam of light had penetrated the barrier and singed the human’s right arm.

 _Ouch! He was able to punch straight through my defenses with that thing,_ the human thought as they fought through the pain and launched several soul darts at Mettaton. He avoided the barrage by front flipping forward and sliding on his knees while leaning backward and firing another shot. In response the human leaned back and to the left to avoid the shot that intended to tear the other arm off. Mettaton then pulled the bolt and slider all the way back to the first notch causing the attachment to expand on the same end as before until it became an extremely wide nozzle. He then pulled the trigger once causing fire to condense itself into the shape of an expanding orb at the edge of the rifle. As the orb reached a desirable size, he pulled the trigger again to project it right at the human.

     As they tried running to the side they were cut off by Mettaton throwing one of his chainsaws in the way. _Seriously?_ _Guess I have to go head to head with this thing,_  they thought before running towards the immense ball of fire. As the attack drew closer, they picked up the pace while at the same time holding their right hand up to their face. Shortly afterwards they became enveloped in a shell of their own soul power. They then rushed through the attack without being burned but they still felt a good portion of heat all over. All in all, the ordeal only sapped a good chunk of the human’s stamina but that didn’t stop them from charging their densest soul dart yet and launching it at Mettaton. Within a moment he quickly perceived the dart's direction and moved the other chainsaw in front of his core to block the shot. However, the dart's density and speed were enough to knock the saw out of his hand as it made contact. He tried to levitate the saw back to him but it was forcefully turned off by the human’s disarmament ability.

     Upon looking back at the human he couldn't help but chuckle as he watched them sprint towards him. The human’s eyes opened wide with surprise as little red crystals they didn’t notice before started to glow on the barrel of the gun until it was solid crimson. Instinctively they slid on their knees and leaned far back as he swung at them with the crimson barrel as if it were a blade. He then turned and cranked the gun up to the third notch again before firing a shot at the human’s head as they popped up behind his back. With a quick rising turn, the human escaped the shot with only the top of their right shoulder taking a bit of burn. “My latest masterpiece couldn’t be nearly as effective at close range, is that what you thought human?” Mettaton said as he shot at them once more. _He was ready for me, but I still c_ _an't stop, yet this is taking so much out of me,_ they thought.

     The human ducked but saw that Mettaton followed up the shot immediately with a low rush from the crimson barrel. To counter him they quickly placed both palms together and had their soul power become highly condensed on both hands. With that they were able to knock away the barrel with the back of their right hand but he was only just getting started. Mettaton continued his assault by attacking with his top set of fists in the middle of the human trying to avoid damage from the gun. The human held their ground with clutch dodging and parries of the barrel saber wherever necessary. As Mettaton brought the barrel from the ground up, the human jumped back before turning their body to the left as he tried to jab them with it. As he was pulling the gun back he shot a round while simultaneously making another jab attempt. The human leaned their head to the right and knocked the jab away from their face using their left hand. Afterwards Mettaton had sliced downward with the barrel while simultaneously cranking down to second notch.  _That's different, better get some distance,_ the human thought while moving to the right.

     They then dodge rolled before running off as the second function turned Mettaton’s weapon into a flamethrower. The human lit the ground in front of them with their soul power and slid on their two feet to reach a safe distance. As their path stopped they tripped and fell before scrambling back onto their feet to face him again. Mettaton had placed his top set of hands on his hips while walking forward as the bottom set continued to spray and play with the flamethrower.

     “You were able to pick that stuff up pretty fast human.” Mettaton said as they were slowly walking backward away from him. He also noticed that a saw from before was still stuck in the ground from when he threw it at the human. As the human neared the edge of the stage, Mettaton cranked the gun down to the first notch while bringing the saw to him with his top left. He then pulled the trigger once and a large flame orb was being generated like before while at the same time he readied the chainsaw to be thrown.

     “It was definitely a nice performance you’ve shown today, but you’re done,” Mettaton said as the orb started to exceed the size it was the first time.

     “Not a chance,” the human shouted along with some heavy breathing. "I know I can find a way to stop you. There's no way i'll let it end here," they continued.

     “So you have a way of taking me out even with a harmless soul power? What possessed you to think you could get away with something like that?" Mettaton said as the orb reached an immense size.

     “It’s called not giving up for starters, and no one’s going to die here if I can help it,” the human shouted back. Mettaton shook his head in disappointment.

     “Is this really how you planned on handling all your assailants?” Mettaton said as the orb reached maximum size. “You will regret this,” he said as the trigger was pulled once more. _You should've gave in, I won't miss you this time,_ he thought.

     As the orb went flying in the human’s direction Mettaton could see a light shining on the other side. _So you’re going to run through it again huh? Not this time human,_  he thought to himself.  Mettaton then threw the saw directly into the center of the orb but was surprised to see that nothing happened. _Hmm? That made no sense. Even if the saw was dodged that ball is too large to get around. Either way there should be screaming right now._ He thought to himself again. Mettaton bore an expression of shock as the orb suddenly started to come his way. _Did they really?_ He wondered.

     “Nice play but this changes nothing,” Mettaton said as he struck and destroyed the orb with one blow of his top right palm. As the smoke cleared he was surprised to look down and see that the human had already closed in. “Impossible!” He said as they detonated a large sphere of soul power into his core. As Mettaton went flying he checked himself to see that disarmament was causing a lot more interference with his system’s stability than usual. “Blasted magic reactor,” he said as he hit the ground dropping the flame rifle at the same time. “This won’t stop me from destroying you human,” Mettaton said as he activated his excess magic epurgency sequence.

     Suddenly Mettaton’s core floated from his body and began to condense the extra magical energy into bolts of lightning. The human encased their self in a shell of soul power effectively protecting their body but it barely mitigated any of the pain. The human tried retaliating by shooting soul darts at the core but it was too fast to land a direct hit on. Two more lightning bolts were fired which the human barely escaped with preemptive dodging.

 _I can get this,_ they thought while taking a deep breath. Meanwhile Mettaton's core darted around while charging another bolt but it had stopped not long afterwards. The human fired another dart at it with no success as the core quickly evaded before discharging the stored energy.

     “Give up,” Mettaton said as he sat there. “Never,” the human said as they made a shield out of their soul power. As the next bolt collided with their shield the human pushed forward with all their might and sent the bolt of lightning back at the core. As the core was struck, it slowly floated up and down in place.

     “What? No way!” Mettaton said as the human charged more soul power into their right hand. “I’ve had enough of this,” the human said as their light elongated and sharpened. “Soul Spear- Maximum Disabling!” The human shouted as the light left their hand. As the spear collided with the core the light exploded into a minor shockwave. Mettaton couldn’t believe what just happened as the core slowly retreated back to him. However, as it reinserted itself the disruptions sent throughout his body was enough to cause his top set of arms to fall off.

     “I told you Mettaton, no one is going to die in here,” the human said as they took two steps forward while breathing heavily.

     “So you think I’m defeated? Doesn’t matter that you made me lose some arms, I still have two more,” Mettaton said as he looked for one of his weapons. The chainsaw that was turned off by the human’s power earlier was seen a little ways to the left of him. Upon seeing that it had recalibrated he held his hand out to levitate the saw to him. However, nothing happened and Mettaton looked at his other arms on the ground as if he had just learned something new about himself. “Never realized that the bottom ones couldn’t do it,” he said. At the same time the human could be heard letting out a giggle. “Silence you,” Mettaton said as he got up on his feet. He then turned around to see that the flame rifle was closer before making a move towards it.

     “Come on, Mettaton. It’s over. I honestly feel that ending was legendary,” the human said as Mettaton stumbled toward his gun. Mettaton ignored them as he held the rifle once more. Mettaton took aim at them after cranking it up to notch three. “I’d say it’s nothing personal, but we both know that's a lie,” he said before firing the shot and having his other two arms fall off in the process. The human tried to get low as quick as possible but their exhaustion caused them to fall flat on their face, either way they dodged the shot. Mettaton was on both knees with clear rage in his eyes as the human looked up at him.

     “Why can’t you kill anything? This isn’t the way the world works you know. There’s no room for fairy tale endings in the underground,” he said while unleashing his core once again but it was moving way slower and didn’t have the stability to let out a proper discharge. The core almost immediately retreated to Mettaton once more and the disruptions caused his legs to go as well.

     "Come on Mettaton, now that we've got that out of the way let's talk," the human said while slowly making their way over to Mettaton before sitting down next to him.

     “Get away from me. There’s nothing left here. The scrap heap awaits me, and that’s if the monsters around here don’t do me in first,” Mettaton complained. “You’re waiting for the exit bridges to return aren’t you? Well I’m not bringing them back so your journey is officially over. What do you think of that?” Mettaton said with a smug look on his face.

     “It’s cool, I’ll feel bad if I left you like this. Plus all this working out has set me up for taking a good nap,” the human responded while in the middle of a stretch. “If anyone one comes for us I’ll just ask them to go away,” Mettaton couldn’t help but laugh at the idea.

     “Quit messing around human, you know it won't be that simple. What happened to none of us dying in here, huh?” Mettaton said.

     “You’re right I did say that, maybe if the bridges were up I’d take you outside and then we could nap,” the human responded.

     “I see your game, good one human,” the human laughed as they continued to mess around alongside of him.

     “It’s probably about time you ended the show. I doubt the audience is very happy since at least one of us was expected to die. Why don’t they like you?” The human asked.

     “That’s easy, he tells me to dice the locals and I say sure thing your majesty, the real question is why don’t you hate me after all I’ve done to you?” Mettaton tossed that subject aside and called out a random series of numbers and letters. Not too long afterwards the metta-mini holding the camera came into view. “There you have it folks, this concludes our very special episode of Attack of the Killer Robot and also marks the prelude to the battle for the fate of the underground. On this special occasion I’ll take three more bonus callers.” As Mettaton’s mic turned on speaker mode once again the clicks could be heard but amidst a small amount of static. “Hel-,“ Mettaton was immediately interrupted by the next caller.

     “Don’t even start Mettaton, you already know that I hate you and this show of yours is just as atrocious,” the human couldn’t help but feel that they’ve heard the caller’s voice before. “What did you have us watch? You lost to the human while annoying people with the embellishment of this dumb play. What made it even more stupid was the fact that the human was practically hopeless seeing how they couldn’t kill you but your shenanigans kept giving them a way out. The underground will probably be less annoying with you two not around,” the caller said while hanging up.

     “Wait Bloo- “ a clicking sound was heard as Mettaton tried to stop the caller from going. Mettaton then proceeded to let out a sigh before saying he’ll take another caller. The next phone call consisted of Mettaton getting rather annoyed as the caller complained and proceeded to call Mettaton all sorts of unpleasant things. The last caller also had some unnecessary things to say and rounded it all off with saying that any other monster could kill the human with no problem.

     Mettaton had finally reached his breaking point as he could also hear the various down talking from his info feeders around the underground. “You know what, all of you can bite me. I’m done with all of this endless complaining. I am Mettaton and I don’t need any of you to do what I want. Having this one kid as a fan beats dealing with your sorry faces any day. You should know that I will get my body repaired and if you really want to try to kill this kid then you’d better be the best dancer the underground has ever seen. Cut it,” on command, the camera mini stopped filming as Mettaton finished speaking his mind.

     “Get out of here kid, you have a date with his Majesty. Sorry for the stuff I’ve done and I hope there’s no hard feelings but there’s nothing I can do now,” Mettaton said as the bridges began to extend to their respective platforms.

     “What are you talking about Mettaton? You’re going to get through this right?” The human asked. Mettaton let out a laugh.

     “That last bit was a farce; truth is if something actually does come after you then I won’t be able to do anything to stop them. I’ll probably be smashed along the way,” they then shook their head no as Mettaton leaned back and closed his eyes.

     “No way, the minis can carry all of you out of here. You can have them fix you,” Mettaton shushed them while shaking his head no in response.

     “They don’t know how to fix me, because I don’t know how to fix me. The only one who can do something about this is Alphys and she’s more than pissed at me. Go kid, make sure that your friends’s hopes don’t go to waste,” The human looked down and closed their eyes.

     “You're really convinced that I can take him on?” They asked prompting Mettaton to lift his head up once more.

     “Look, Asgore has the most knowledge and experience with soul power out of any being in the underground so while I find it hard to believe he’ll be defeated, if anyone was to do it, it’d be you. There’s one major issue however, reaching out to Asgore is going to be difficult since he’s determined to prove you wrong. His resolute mind will make it hard to point out an psychological weaknesses as well. The short of it is, invoking a soul reaction that would level the playing field between you two seems impossible, so you need to find tools to replace the ones you used in this fight,” Mettaton explained. The human nodded to him before heading to the door.

     “I won’t let them down,” they said as he nodded back at them. _Can't say that i'm not worried._ _Forgiveness and friendship were the main concepts that allowed me to connect to Toriel and Papyrus. Only Papyrus could reach Undyne seeing how the focus was loyalty versus independence. Can this be resolved peacefully if Asgore's conscience is as solid as he says?_ They thought.

     “You got this darling,” Mettaton said as the human was finally on the verge of leaving his sight.  _Such interesting creatures they are, I wonder what made us fall for them? As stubborn as I was before, I wish I could say sorry Alphys._ Suddenly sounds could be heard coming from the entrance. _How could they be upon us so quickly? Well I guess this is it,_ he thought.

     The human walked out of the elevator to be greeted with Flowey and the “dirty” boot. They picked up the boot and brushed some soil off of their sleeve. “Glad you made it, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. So you had to kill Mettaton huh?” Flowey asked but the human shook their head no as they walked.

     “No one is going to die today Flowey,” they responded not noticing that Flowey was giving them a questionable look.

     “You seem pretty confident for someone who crossed over not too long ago. I noticed you take it back earlier,” he said while eyeing them even closer. They let out a sigh and smiled lightly before answering.

     “Yeah, he took me out once, but all the stuff that happened up to the fight proved to be just as crazy,” the human said before describing their journey to the CORE. The two continued onward until they were in the middle of the Judgement Hall. There the human saw Sans posted up on one side of the room as they walked. “Hey there Sans,” the human greeted him with a wave.

     “How’s it going kiddo,” he says back.

     “Doing fine, you seeing us off to the king’s place?” The human asked cheerfully.

     “About that,“ Sans said while teleporting right in front of the human. Sans’s left eye began to glow red as he continued. “I think we need to talk.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fun Facts  
> This is the first fan story i've written and I didn't think I'd be adding on to this at first, but giving the human memories to motivate them through the fight is what created the foundation for the other stories
> 
> Originally most of this story consisted of Mettaton talking to himself in the beginning because when I first thought of it the main character was still the strong silent type
> 
> At first all of the text in the story was the same because I was unaware of how to have italicized text which made expressing thought a bit tedious
> 
> Eventually I did figure out how to add chapters as well but by that point I figured I had messed up enough and accepted it. I actually grew comfortable with portraying it this way and I like how each story plays its own part in attracting readers but it's up for debate whether it should stay like this forever
> 
> As usual this story has its fair share of references such as the use of light saber chainsaws and magic similar to but not as potent as the sorceries famous to the Souls series. One of the themes that came to mind while making this was the DBG mix by Jeffrey Watkins. Hopefully this is the last time I'll have to edit it.


End file.
